AWI chief exec departs in restructure

Australasian Wealth Investments (AWI) chief executive and managing director, Ben Heap, will leave the group after it announced a restructure which has resulted in Paul Clitheroe becoming executive chair.

In a statement released to the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) yesterday AWI stated that it had conducted a strategic review and would integrate as single business and focus on its wholly owned digital wealth properties - InvestSMART, YourShare and Intelligent Investor.

Clitheroe said the changes would allow AWI to "streamline its business, and align its cost structure with the size of the Company".

"While we have significant work to do, I am pleased with the recent progress in our core business, notably the launch of new products and customer growth in Intelligent Investor and the revamp of our digital properties, as we seek to become an integrated and efficient customer focused wealth business," Clitheroe said.

Clitheroe was elected as a director to the AWI board in November last year at its annual general meeting (AGM) and was made Chair of the Board at board meeting held after the AGM.

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InvestSMART head Ron Hodge has also been appointed as AWI chief operating officer with the appointment to the new roles of Clitheroe and Hodge as well as Heaps's departure effective immediately. His departure follows that of AWI director, Andrew Barnes, who resigned as chair in mid-November last year after AWI faced losses due to the collapse of van Eyk Research.

Heap joined AWI from after six years as head of UBS Global Asset Management and prior to joining UBS in 2007 was a senior executive at Australian Wealth Management and held roles as head of digital business for TAB Limited and as an M&A executive at Macquarie Bank.